Serving OB, the Peninsula and San Diego Beaches
Two teenagers had to be rescued today by lifeguards using a crane. And the rescue was at the usual “jumping” site along Sunset Cliffs, near Froude Street.
The two were apparently from of group of 7, out to see the big surf, skipping school, who decided to try the jump.
But Not So Much of Other Things
Yup, kids, the Old OB Hippie is full of pride these days about OB (… but not so much from other stuff) and how the community came together around the annual OB Holiday Parade.
The OB Parades are always a gas, but this year was special, as the OB Town Council, who hosts the parade, named the OB Community Plan as the “Grand Marshal” of the parade! Wow! This is tremendous – and I’ve never in all my decades seen the local town council join up in solidarity with the local planning board like this. Plus I don’t think there’s ever been a Grand Marshall that hasn’t been an actual person. I could be wrong, and I’d love to know if I was on this. But this is / was very significant in this community’s history.
The OB Parade always has surprises and fun floats and entries. This year, the “OB Pause” was crazy great. They had a airplane outline in lights and then they all came to a halt. …
Do you know which planning district you live in within Ocean Beach?
Here is a detailed and photographic tour of each of the seven planning districts within the OB Planning Area. These posts were originally written for the OB Planning Board election in March of 2014. Everything – except who the current District representatives are – is still up todate.
We begin with District 1 – the northwest sector of OB – a very important section of the community. It’s bordered on the north by Dog Beach, the San Diego River and Robb Field – which makes the district the gateway to two of OB’s parks. It’s the site of the most famous dog-friendly beach park in the city and due to the district’s proximity to the beach, it has a heavy impact from tourists and visitors. … MORE
By Frank Thomas and John Lawrence
Part 1 of a Multi-Part Series
Introduction
A facile denial of reality sits in the DNA of human nature – and climate change is no exception. The inbred fantasy-culture of endless growth, technology, and a throwaway consumeristic lifestyle fueled by exploiting pollutive fossil fuels has reinforced the illusion that we can do so without destroying the environment and even life itself.
The threat to human life and the planet seems to need to be truly imminent before we humans can change our course. By then, however, it will be too late …
At their last meeting on December 3rd, the OB Planning Board announced that its annual elections will be held on March 10, 2015, and that half of its seats are up for selection. There are also currently 3 vacancies on the Board, so by our count, that’s 8 positions on the Board up for grabs.
Residents, merchants and property owners are eligible to serve on the Board, and anyone so interested must have attended one meeting of the Planning Board sometime between last March 2014 and their January meeting in 2015.
COME INSIDE FOR ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS, MAPS, & APPLICATION
There’s fliers out here and there around OB of late that call for a “skate protest” on Saturday, Dec. 13. We’ve seen two variations – one calls for “Reclaim the Street”, and “Stop Skateboard Discrimination” and “End youth and homeless discrimination”.
The other says: “Support OB Culture”, and calls for “youth and homeless discrimination awareness”. Both call for a Skate down Ocean Beach’s Newport Avenue at 12 noon on Saturday. One asked “Please wear green for peace and solidarity”. Both fliers had been apparently printed off a xerox, and were gray with hand-written text and symbols.
By Norma Damashek
San Diego can be such a silly city. For proof, consider the oddly loopy hubbub that surrounds this year’s annual City Council ritual of choosing a council president.
People (many of whom should know better) have been turning themselves inside out over the roaring-hot question: will Todd Gloria be awarded a third term as council president or will another council member (presumably Sherri Lightner) get a turn to be the council’s presiding officer?
By Anna Prouty
Canvass for a Cause was founded in 2009 as a queer canvassing organization focused on marriage equality. It quickly grew into the intersectional queer safe space and radical activism community it is now.
By Bob Dorn / San Diego Free Press
So, this 71-year-old with the income of a teenager walks into an uptown branch of Union Bank. He had just $28.75 in his checking account following his open heart surgery two weeks before on Nov. 17.
This was his first chance to get to the bank to take up some issues.One reason he had so little money had nothing to do with the bank’s operations. He’d had an angiogram and an EKG earlier in the month – stuff the medical world must do before doctors can open everything up to repair floppy heart valves – and the upfront co-pays were about $160 more than he’d anticipated. Those and smaller amounts for medicine accounted for the couple of hundred he hadn’t factored into demands on the checking account. …
Editor: Our friends at the San Diego Reader recently published writer Tony de Garate‘s latest update on the CVS Pharmacy coming into Ocean Beach. But they edited out his “favorite part” – a comical reference to the fact the giant drugstore may not have its alcohol license for its scheduled opening in January 2015. We now include that part in a full publication of his original piece below, with the edited out section in italics.
Maybe it’s no Boston, but the city of Lowell, Mass. is not without its charms. It’s the fourth largest city in the state and has been home to such notables as Ed McMahon, Bette Davis and Jack Kerouac. It cemented its cred for Yankee ingenuity in 1880, becoming the first city in the nation to use telephone numbers.
Today, the national retail chain CVS Pharmacy has more than 5,000 outlets, but the first one opened in 1963 in Lowell. CVS, according to “Fun Facts” on the city of Lowell’s website, was an acronym for Consumer Value Store.
By Judi Curry
I spent a delightful morning with Kevin Beiser, the San Diego Unified School Board President and he had many positive things to say about what has happened in the district since he has been on the board.
As a public school teacher beginning my career in the early sixties, I have seen the pendulum swing many ways in the past fifty years. (Fifty Years! My God!)
Perhaps one of the biggest swings was from the Professional Organizations of the California Teachers Association (CTA) and the National Education Association (NEA) to the American Federation of Teachers – AFT –and other labor organizations. As a member of “management” later in my career, I have been disillusioned with professionals (educators) belonging to labor organizations, …
Photos Inside Capture Flavor of “Peace and Love”
With the theme of “35 Years of Peace, Love and Ocean Beach” the OB Town Council hosted its annual holiday parade this past Saturday, Dec. 6th. And again, it was a raging success, where thousands of locals and visitors watched the festive 4 block long parade, with one hundred floats or entries. And as usual, a mix of local high school and scout entries mixed with the weird and off-beat – genuine OB type of floats.
On late Monday, Dec. 8th, the Ocean Beach Town Council announced the winners, and here they are:
COME INSIDE FOR MORE
Say Keep it goin' to the OB Rag
with your donation today!
Copyright © 2026 OB Rag
Recent Comments